Roasting Hell Weeks
By ANNIE ZHU ‘28
Wednesday evening, 10:52 pm. I sit in front of my desk trying to piece together an article good enough for the deadline, instead of doing my math (or science, or spanish, or English, or sleeping…) homework.
I can’t remember what I had for lunch, and for dinner I had a depressing bowl of Annie’s Mac & Cheese. (Breakfast? What’s that??) I had bought two boxes of the instant disaster, in hopes that whatever was inside the box would taste better because it had my name on it.
Since my arrival at Exeter, whispers of the infamous Hell Week had been flitting around my ears. I refused to believe them (gaslighting works!), and as my life was still drenched in the honey of Pass-Fail term, I decided to shove my worries away into the corner of my mind. But, as I have learned in Physics (of course there’s a test tomorrow), every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
Here’s a week of a prep’s New Hampshire Hell, rated:
Monday: After I had indulged in my only sleep-in of the week (by scrolling and finishing my math homework early), I set off to my classes, which pretty much consisted of icebreakers and how many tests I will have to stress for before break. I had my first H-Block of the year, and celebrated my first day back by eating dinner at Grill. 8/10, pressure has not set in yet
Tuesday: Normal day of school, wish it was warmer, though. 7/10, hw starting to catch up but still under control
Wednesday: I woke up at 8:00 am for health (I thought I had signed up for spring term?) and had my typical day of classes until 12:50 pm. Then, I set off to a volunteering event, where I got drenched head-to-toe from the rain and dried off inside while sorting applesauce packets. When I returned, I rushed back to my dorm to finish my physics homework, only to remember that I had forgotten my Ipad inside my math classroom—which was locked. By the time I called Campus Safety and retrieved my belongings, it was already time for my music lesson. 5/10, dead busy. An umbrella would have been helpful.
Thursday: I had classes from 8:15 a.m. to 8:15 p.m., which is a 12-hour shift—longer than the average adult’s workday. I finished my physics quiz and ran up five flights of stairs to H-Block Spanish, where I tried not to think about the test’s multiple-choice section. 3/10, slept at 12 a.m. trying to finish homework. tired
Friday: Woke up 7:30 am for P.E. and finished the rest of the day solely on the thought that by 5:50 p.m., my week would be over. 7/10, 2 days’ of freedom. One more week to go!!!